Saturday, September 10, 2016

Running In the Mud

The things we do for "fun" and for "fitness". Today, Chickie will be pursuing both of those goals in the Twin Cities annual Rugged Maniac Mud Run. If she wasn't taking the day off to run the race, it's one that I'd love to try, just for the heck of it. But she "ran" it last year, enjoyed it, and is running it once again with other friends from her YMCA. I'll probably end up able to participate in it in a few years if I'm not working on the day it is held.

Rugged Maniac Mud Run is relatively short comparedto others, and as long as you're not going for the winor time, you can skip any or all of the obstacles.

The Mud Run is one of several national competitions for fitness. This one is 3.1 miles long with 25 obstacles, but various events are held throughout the year with distances and number of obstacles varying. This particular one is called the "Rugged Maniac Obstacle Race Series". It'll be a cold day to be romping in the mud - our high will only be 69F (20.5C) today. Not exactly optimum comfort for an outdoor event with a cold water hose-off at the end, but it could be worse. It's the Frozen Northlands and we could be experiencing an unexpected cold spell. This is actually a normal temp for this time of year, so not too bad.

There are walls to climb, watery pits to ford, and fire to jump. More than5000 people register for the event, but not everyone actually goes for the win.

There are five Mud Run events that take place in the Twin Cities area annually - Rugged Maniac Mud Run, Muddy Warrior Run, Viking Challenge Mud Run, Minnesota Spartan Race and Minnesota Warrior Dash. Each face requires an entry fee, some also require insurance and other extra fees. The Rugged Maniac Mud Run is one of the more affordable ones. I'm probably never going to actually run one of these, but the idea is very tempting. Rather like doing a triathlon is tempting, but probably not in my future. I guess I'll stick with the pool ... at least for now. Hope you have a great weekend. I'll be back on Monday.